10 Kitchen Island Ideas

Kitchen island ideas and designs. See below for a range of stylish ideas for kitchen islands, from seating and lighting to storage and worktops...

We've rounded up our favourite ergonomic islands, from utilitarian designs with hidden storage and plenty of legroom to those with loud colours or open shelving. Whether you prioritise functionality, in terms of surface space and applicances, or style (Carrara marble, anyone?), one of these schemes will include your dream island. See below for shopping and design inspiration...

The copper worktop of this bespoke kitchen island matches the cooker hood in this unusual scheme.

'I haven't used wall cupboards because I didn't want the kitchen to read like a traditional kitchen or look too boxy,' explains Beata Heuman, the interior designer behind this vibrant home in London. The colour palette, which includes a Swedish green marble worktop and a bespoke copper cooker hood and island by Premier Building & Design, complements the garden beyond. It will acquire a greenish patina over time.

A large central island clad in a green onyx dominates this dramatic but inviting kitchen. Its colour makes an attractive contrast to the white Corian kitchen worktops, which match an oversized pendant light by Halo Tech Design.

The vibrant white room is a daring space: sophisticated yet welcoming. And while there's an element of drama, this feels like a lived-in home in which colour, texture and personality are the result of inspired choices.

This kitchen island has open shelving, which displays wine, books and tableware, while Tom Dixon pendant lights hang above.

The tiles behind the Aga in this country kitchen, which are from Ann Sacks, make the alcove a lovely focus in the bright room.

This restored Georgian house in Somerset was an irresistible challenge for its owners, who put together a team including architect Ptolemy Dean for the painstaking restoration, which won a Georgian Group award in 2015.

This marble kitchen island adds to the wide variety of textures in the monochrome kitchen, and particularly contrasts with the exposed brick wall beside the dining area. The unusual lights above the island were sourced by Light House Designs.

During the day, the open-plan space is flooded with natural light thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, which also encourage the garden to be part of the home.

This west London house was extended with the addition of a basement, creating a brighter, larger space that flows perfectly for better, more modern family living.

This kitchen island features white 'Architecture' tiles by Fired Earth and cement encaustic tiles in various patterns from Carocim Tiles. This look is softened by the addition of a green oak worktop by Whetstone Oak and mid-century modern seating by Bo Concept.

The scheme, designed by House & Garden's decoration director Gabby Deeming, also includes 'paper tiles' wallpaper by Louise Body, which at £20 a meter acts as a cost-effective substitute to retiling the whole room.

Taken from the January 2012 issue of House & Garden. Styling: Gabby Deeming.

This kitchen island has rustic washed oak doors and a Carrara marble shell. Designed by David Bentheim, it combines open shelving, used to proudly display the prettiest tableware, with hidden storage. The kitchen of this newbuild California house also shows off its tableware - by a range of designers from Fornasetti to Emma Bridgewater - on the walls' open shelves.

This wooden kitchen island strengthens the rustic, countryside feel of the scheme to which it belongs. It also cradles a selection of wooden boxes storing miscellaneous kitchen objects.

'You really have to listen to a house like this,' designer Harriet Anstruther says as she crosses the stone threshold of her restored farmhouse in Sussex, worn smooth by the centuries of stomping feet, through the back door and into the scullery, which connects to the kitchen. 'There are no straight lines here, and there is nothing that doesn't have a hole or a chip or a bird in it. But if you spent your time worrying about spiders and symmetry, you wouldn't live here.' Harriet sourced the kitchen units from Habitat.

The small kitchen in Sarah Chambers' Victorian terrace house is painted a pink inspired by a set of vintage Pyrex bowls bought during a year spent living in Boston. The alluring finish of this custom-made splashback is created with silver gilt, uniformly stipple-painted onto strengthened glass. Pure white Corian worktops provide a contrast with dark wood cabinets. The custom-made suite by Wabi Sabi features an inset in the island for displaying vintage cabbage ware.

This grey-painted kitchen island has a marble worktop from Neptune. Vaughan's 'Regency Glass Globe Lanterns' hang above, while a traditional black Aga contrasts with white tiling in the alcove. The overall scheme is traditional, but also modern and sleek.

A functional kitchen island that encourages socialibility is preferred by kitchen and furniture designer Johnny Grey, a visiting professor of Design and Kitchen Culture at Bucks New University.

'Eye contact from all key cooking and prepping areas is essential for conversation, and central islands are good for this. A curved kitchen peninsula brings sociability; your view also becomes panoramic and your body more relaxed as you move.

'Places to perch or lean on add friendliness, not just at the island, but also in temporary or unexpected spots, such as a windowsill.'

This kitchen island is wooden with dark green units, which offer colour to the pale scheme.

Full of clever, hidden internal details, the Osea kitchen by Plain English combines the warmth of traditional joinery with clean, modern lines. 'I thought a large, modular island would give a contemporary edge to the design and, for fun, called it the Osea. The idea then grew to take inspiration from the landscape and geology of the island,' says director Katie Fontana.